Haptic effects (sometimes referred to as touch or tactile feedback) can be produced by haptic actuators, or motors designed to create haptic sensations such as vibrations. Haptic sensations can be created in consumer electronic devices, such as smart phones, tablet computers, and other mobile computing devices, by haptic actuators embedded in the devices. For example, embedded software in a smart phone can cause a haptic signal to be sent to a haptic actuator when a phone call is received thereby causing the phone to vibrate and alert a user of the phone of the incoming call. The haptic signal can be represented as an 8-bit, 8 kilohertz (kHz) audio signal, for example.
Audio content, such as music, and audio/visual (A/V) content, such as movies, can be haptically enhanced to a create a multimodal experience for consumers. Techniques exist for automatically generating haptic feedback based on an analysis of an audio signal. For example, techniques exist in mobile computing devices for automatically generating haptic signals based on audio signals output by device applications such as, for example, gaming applications or short-form video applications. The generated haptic signals are sent to haptic actuators in the devices to provide haptic accompaniment to the A/V content output by the applications.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section. Similarly, issues identified with respect to one or more approaches should not assume to have been recognized in any prior art on the basis of this section, unless otherwise indicated.